The “Waters of the U.S.” proposed rule published this week reflects the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) latest interpretation of the 1972 Clean Water Act. The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) urges members to resist the proposed rule, saying it will impose unworkable regulations on the nation’s farms.
The rule could ultimately lead to the unlawful expansion of federal regulation to cover routine farming and ranching practices and other land features such as ditches and areas of agricultural land that are wet only during storms, AFBF President Bob Stallman said in a statement.
Field work, fence construction or planting could require a federal permit under the proposal.
“Congress, not federal agencies, writes the laws of the land,” Stallman said. “When Congress wrote the Clean Water Act, it clearly intended for the law to apply to navigable waters. Is a small ditch navigable? Is a stock pond navigable? We really don’t think so, and Farm Bureau members are going to be sending that message.”